Interest in Finland’s education system engages Malaysian business players, educators

By Nabilah Saleh

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 18 (Bernama) -- The new Malaysian Government’s strong interest in Finland’s education system has fuelled Finnpartnership to further engage more businesses with this country’s key business players and educators.

Finnish Ambassador to Malaysia, Petri Puhakka said the high anticipation expressed specifically by Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik had allowed the business partnership programme to serve as a platform in uniting the interests of both nations.

“Education is a growing sector, which is also our focus of the ‘Doing Business with Finland’ seminars here in Malaysia since we first did in March 2016.

“It is a fairly new concept that education is an export field. This, being one of the key interests of the new Malaysian Government is clear evidence that everyone wants to obtain good education and we are genuinely happy with the progress and interest shown here."

Puhakka, who is also Ambassador to Brunei as well as the Philippines, was speaking to Bernama on the sidelines of the 'Doing Business with Finland' seminar held here today.

The seminar was co-organised by the Finland Embassy in Kuala Lumpur and Finnpartnership, a Helsinki-based Finnish Business Partnership Programme that provides advisory services and financial support for business activities of Finnish companies in developing countries.

Over 100 participants comprising companies, organisations, consultants, product distributors and educators in Finland and Malaysia also sought out new cooperation opportunities and business partners through business-to-business (B2B) meetings and matchmaking held here.

Elaborating, Puhakka fervently hoped Malaysia could adapt the efficiency of Finland’s education system, with priority given to fulfil the nation’s needs.

“This platform (seminar) is basically to facilitate both countries’ companies to explore opportunities of what Finland can offer and what can be done in Finland.

“It is still important to define what exactly it is about to be implemented in Malaysia. You cannot just copy; you have to adapt it to (suit) local surroundings and local habits,” he said.

Meanwhile, speaking on the event, Finnpartnership Programme Officer Senni Muiniekka said the demand among Finnish companies to penetrate Malaysia’s business market increased this year whereby, about 40 companies were currently open to networking purposes.

“There are many factors contributing to this. I believe one of them is due to the presence of Finnish companies in Asia in which 50 per cent business partnership projects were granted last year and this footprint makes Finland (and its education system) more visible within the continent,” she said, noting Finnpartnership had been actively conducting seminars worldwide since 2007.

-- BERNAMA